sweethoneysempai:shycrusadeconfection:minxymojo:sweethoneysempai:snowflakesandangelslove:buckydaily:
sweethoneysempai:shycrusadeconfection:minxymojo:sweethoneysempai:snowflakesandangelslove:buckydaily:DAMSEL IN DISTRESSa classic theme in world literature, art, film and video games; most notably in those that have a lot of action. This trope usually involves beautiful, innocent, or helpless young female leads, placed in a dire predicament by a villain, monster, or alien, and who requires a male hero to achieve their rescue. After rescuing them, the hero often obtains their hand in marriage.#i’m just saying#there’s a reason so many women fiercely latched on to bucky’s character#not only is bucky gorgeous but he’s also a constant plot point to give the hero manpain#in the first avenger he needs to be rescued and his death is the hero’s ultimate motivator#in the winter soldier the hero still mourns this momentous loss until bucky springs back like the beautiful femme fatale that he is#with no agency or autonomy i should add#and in civil war he’s again just a plot device this time to cause a rift between two Men#and the russos stated they chose bucky as the first to be dusted in IW so we could view this horror from steve’s eyes#anyway i have Thoughts#bucky barnes#steve rogers#cap: tfa#cap: tws#cap: cw (via mackievanstan) Let’s also remember that Bucky is given feminine actions to perform outside of Being Rescued by Steve. Bucky performs a lot, like a whole hell of a lot, of emotional labor on Steve’s behalf. Oceans of digital ink have been spilled regarding Bucky’s role as pre-serum Steve’s physical and emotional caretaker. On-screen, we watch him arrange Steve’s domestic (“I am literally begging you to live with me now that your mother has passed away”) and social (“I found you a date!”) life for him…(Interesting to note that when he takes on the role as Steve’s protector, the actual aggression involved is minimal: one punch and one kick in the alleway; one clean shot to the head during the CATFA montage.)…and he puts up with Steve’s cock-eyed enthusiasm against his better judgment and against his own best interests. From letting Steve ditch him at the Expo on a night that should’ve been about Bucky making good memories to take overseas, to agreeing when Steve asks him to join a crack squad going after the same people responsible for a pretty damn significant trauma to him—and hell, skipping ahead to CW when he instantly joins up with Steve to go to Siberia despite the events of the first half of the film—Bucky constantly sublimates himself to serve the causes of other people. And it’s not just Steve! Pierce orders and abuses and guilts Bucky into compliance even when he has misgivings. Bucky is undeniably reluctant to be dragged into the Infinity War, but he follows when T’Challa beckons, and he even plasters a big smile onto his face for when Steve shows up (to say nothing of the appearance change/personal grooming he put on in the meantime, which a - was so goddamn gay, and b - is a ploy to make him look more ready to be here, since Bucky’s appearance/state of dress is linked to his mental state, as evidenced by every single scene Bucky is ever in, ever).Also, I think Bucky is the only MCU man we ever see shopping? (I’m not counting Peter Parker because he is a minor.) Actually shopping, not just walking through a marketplace or townsquare (or covertly using a computer). Chatting with the vendor and smiling and generally putting on social niceties that are often assigned to women irl and on-screen (without the manly posturing that even Peter engages in).There was an article awhile back hypothesizing that Nonbinary Bucky took off as a popular fandom interpretation precisely because he’s been assigned the Woman’s Role so thoroughly. I can totally see why. tagging @beautifulwhensarcastic and @koreanrage so they can read my tags |Veverything e v e r y bit of this, especially:This meta is Lit @minxymojo and @shycrusadeconfection (idk why not tagging properly) thank you ^.^After glancing at the other comments, I also just want to say that there’s nothing inherently wrong with the feminine emotionality that Bucky displays. In fact, it’s amazing in a good way that such a personality was given to a male character. Some people really do just enjoy and ultimately feel fulfilled by taking care of others emotionally and serving noble causes. Steve actually does as well; he just does it in a conventionally masculine, overtly heroic, attention-grabbing way. But the “support” role is not actually lesser than the lead one. Good luck making a movie with only a director and lead role, y’know? People who are service-minded are extremely necessary to civilization. What Bucky has are skills, not simply exploitable traits. And honestly, it’s also okay to be the one who gets rescued. You’re not a lesser person if you need physical or emotional saving every once in awhile, nor does that make you unequal to the rescuer, even/especially if the rescuer is your romantic partner. The problem, in real life, is when the emotional labor and skills provided by the feminine actor go unappreciated and unrewarded—or, worse, punished. It’s a problem when the feminine actor’s own personal needs go unmet and their own boundaries go disrespected…or if they don’t know enough about themselves to set boundaries in the first place. (It’s also a problem for women irl when we are expected to perform this feminine emotional labor even if it’s not in our individual personality/skillset/values system, or just don’t have the energy to do it at the moment, and get punished for non-compliance.) What’s really interesting is watching how Steve grows over the series in relation to Bucky. CATFA Steve, frankly, walks all over Bucky. Steve doesn’t mean to do it…he’s young and impetuous, he has to make sure that his life ultimately means something (considering he grew up not expecting to live long, and being denigrated for his poor health and disabilities), he has High Ideals that need pursuing. His eyes are skyward, and that means either not noticing, or noticing but not effectively addressing, when Bucky is hurting right in front of him. I’ve written elsewhere that a) Steve is in serious denial about Bucky’s status as a mortal all the way up until Bucky falls from the train, only truly acknowledging once or twice that Bucky’s at risk of dying, and b) Steve knew something was emotionally wrong with Bucky post-Krausberg—watch his eyes when he asks if Bucky is “ready to follow;” they are on Bucky like a hawk—but Bucky was able to deflect Steve’s concern, and Steve figured that he ought to treat Bucky the same as ever, and that maybe the chance at revenge against Hydra is all the catharsis Bucky needs.It’s actually after losing Bucky that we see Steve start to assume some of the Emotional/Social Labor skills that Bucky had…clumsily at first, and then more deftly. In the Avengers he seeks Tony out after Coulson’s death; in Winter Soldier he opens the conversational door for Sam to talk about Riley and asks Natasha what’s bothering her when they’re at Sam’s house; in Civil War he goes to comfort and assure Wanda post-Lagos. Clearly, after losing Bucky, he’s truly learned the value of a person who seeks to meet others’ emotional needs, not only saves their physical lives. I also think it’s telling that he explicitly offers to let Sam back out of helping him not once but twice in Winter Soldier…maybe he wonders that if he had told Bucky outright “You know, it’s okay if you choose not to join the Commandos; I’m not gonna judge you for it” that Bucky would have declined the invitation and consequently gotten to live. Civil War is…it’s really hard to guage this movie in terms of Steve’s growth and change in attitude towards Bucky because you honestly cannot underestimate a) how plot-driven rather than character-driven it is, and b) how thoroughly and insiduously the studio’s Gay Panic informs the execution of the film. I was and still am infuriated that the relative mutual tenderness of the “Buck, do you remember me? / Your mom’s name was Sarah” scene from the trailer was replaced by the brusque “Which Bucky am I talking to?” and the weird…amused…?…is he supposed to be delerious…? delivery of the “your mom’s name” line. imo Steve and Bucky’s inital reunion at the apartment was also a lot more standoffish than it needed to be, at least on Steve’s part…for someone who’s spent two years looking for Bucky, Steve sure does seem to be mostly annoyed to be in his company. And then there is that deleted scene—the one on the plane, where Bucky is seated away from the cockpit looking pensive and Steve approaches him—that I guess got replaced by the “whatever you did, it wasn’t you” scene which…is a major backslide for Steve in terms of approach, after the softness he afforded Natasha and Wanda; Steve’s back to Avengers-level clumsiness there. Oh, and the painfully awkward shoulder-grab of Don’t Forget How Totally Heterosexual We Are. The point is, Civil War is (deliberately) bad and it should feel bad, don’t @ me. I’ve declined to see Infinity War because fuck paying the Russos/Marcus&McFeeley for baiting me, but it looks like in Steve’s five seconds of non-fighting screentime he at least asks Bucky how he’s doing and touches him in a not-No Homo way, so there’s that at least.Anyway, up until Civil War, and clumsily through and after it due to executive meddling rather than authentic storytelling, we saw Steve, the masculine actor, learning how to value and employ feminine emotional skill and labor…something he mostly learned from his relationship with another man. Which was and is so cool and innovative, and is what really enriches the Steve-Bucky dynamic and makes it so attractive and compelling to fans, particularly female fans who see their own emotional labor and skills go completely unnoticed and unappreciated by the people—particulary men—they most want appreciation from. -- source link